Cullen's Patisserie
by sammigirl23
Summary: Bella is a graduate Pastry Chef. She lands a job in a patisserie owned by the Cullen Family. Will Bella find love with Edward Cullen? Or will the horrors in his past stop them from being together? AH
1. A New Start

**Cullen's Patisserie - Chapter 1**

**Hi everyone, **

**This is my first story, I hope you all like it :)**

* * *

Starting a new job is always stressful. I've only had one job in my life, but that one was while I was in high school, and as far as I'm concerned it doesn't count. Working in a shop that sells hiking equipment really doesn't prepare you for a career in hospitality.

My name is Bella Swan. My parents divorced when I was young and I lived with my mum for a while in Phoenix, Arizona, before moving to Forks, Washington, to live with my dad. After high school I moved to Seattle to go to Patisserie School. I studied for four years to become a Pastry Chef. It was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed studying, but now I'm in the real world, which frankly is scary.

After I graduated applied for all the jobs I could find with the words 'Pastry Chef' in them.  
I got a call for one, was interviewed (a far as I'm concerned, not very well) and I got the job, much to my surprise. I don't interview well generally, but since the interview was practical, I interviewed better than I usually do.

So here I am, about to walk in to the kitchen for my first day on the job.  
Taking a deep breath, I walked in, looking for my new boss, Carlisle Cullen. Carlisle was tall, blonde and far too attractive for a pastry chef.  
When I got to the office where the 'chat' part of my interview took place, I found not Carlisle, but someone else. He was sitting in a chair, hunched over a piece of paper on the desk. He was wearing the usual chefs uniform – black and white check pants and a white jacket with black buttons.

I felt it was safe to assume he was a Cullen. Carlisle had said in the interview that it was a family business and that they only employed family. Carlisle did the paperwork, his wife Esme managed the front of house. They had five adoptive children. Two of the boys were pastry chefs, the other boy delivered orders, helped with the paperwork and did anything else the needed. The two girls helped out with front of house, but had their own careers.

They were interviewing for a new pastry chef as Carlisle was busy with the paperwork side of the business and his two sons couldn't handle the amount of order they were getting. They needed an extra pair of hands, which was where I came in.

"Hello" I said in what I hoped was a friendly tone.  
The stranger looked up, gave me a once over, and turned back to his paper.  
"Is Carlisle around?" I waited for a response, but I didn't get one.  
"I'm the new pastry chef, Bella. Is there somewhere I can put my bag?"  
Still no response. I decided to have a look around and see if I could find somewhere for my bag.

After a couple of minutes of poking around I gave up and went back to the office.  
I saw in the corner some cubby holes, so I squeezed past the desk and shoved my bag in a cubby hole.  
I then turned back to the stranger, noticing he had messy hair in a strange but attractive bronze colour. I had noticed when he looked at me that he was quite attractive, or would be if he didn't sneer.

I decided to be a bit more forceful this time. If we were going to be working together, he had to at least speak to me about work, even if he didn't want to talk to me about anything else.  
"Is there anything you want me to get started on? Any orders or items you need for the shop made up?"

The stranger looked up at me again, and stared at me for a good minute.  
The more I looked at him, the more attractive he was. I tried to say something, but my breath caught in my throat. Wow, he's gorgeous!  
"Ah Bella, you're here!" Carlisle walked in carrying three coffees and a bunch of paperwork. He was smiling and after he put the paperwork down he handed me a coffee.

"Hello Carlisle, how are you?" I found my voice once I looked away from the strange man.  
"Well, thanks. I am so glad you decided to join us! I see you've met my youngest, Edward." He smiled at Edward and I. I scoffed to myself; 'met' isn't exactly the word I'd use.

"Yes Bella and I are well acquainted. I was just going to ask her to get started on this order." I stared at Edward in shock, my mouth hanging open slightly.  
I wasn't sure what I was more shocked about; the fact that he'd spoken, or the fact that he had a beautiful voice. I was in trouble here. I couldn't be attracted to him, I was sure he didn't like me. That didn't stop me from staring at him out of the corner of my eye.  
When Carlisle glanced at me and I quickly smiled and nodded as though I knew what Edward was talking about.  
I had a bad feeling about this.

I was sitting in the kitchen five minutes later, staring at the piece of paper I had been given. I'd been asked to make a croquembouche. I'd done one before, of course, but I knew that I could easily make a very large mistake.  
Toffee was used to bind all of the profiteroles together and I knew I was going to burn myself. I always did. I was so clumsy.  
The first step had been to make the choux pastry for the profiteroles, and I was working out how many I'd need. It worked out to be 100, and I had no idea how I was going to get that many on one tower. It was going to be a very large croquembouche, and I was petrified that I was going to mess this one up big time.

I decided to get started. I made the first batch of choux pastry for the profiteroles, and got it in the oven as quickly as I could. This was going to be a long day. Edward glanced over at me occasionally, and when I noticed him looking, I seemed to make a mistake. Concentrate, Bella!

Throughout the day Carlisle checked on me and seemed pleased with how I was going.  
About halfway through the day, I noticed Edward looking at me. I dropped the bowl I was carrying and cringed as it hit the floor. Luckily for me, it was metal. When I ventured a look over at Edward he sneered at me.  
"If you keep dropping things you'll be out of a job."  
Well actually, he spat it. Literally. I could see spit flying in my direction.

I spent the rest of the day alternately wondering what I'd done to make him hate me, and stressing about the croquembouche.  
Thankfully the croquembouche turned out beautifully. Looked like my training had paid off.  
Edward, of course, said nothing about the croquembouche. Carlisle and the rest of the staff however, were lovely.

Carlisle called Esme to have a look at my creation and she smiled, took a photo and hugged me.  
"Welcome to Cullen's Bella, I know you're going to fit in just fine."  
"Thanks Esme, I really appreciate you giving me this opportunity"  
"Oh it's nothing dear, we're thrilled to have you! I can't wait to see what else you can do."

It was a slow day, so the rest of the Cullen's weren't working, but I was assured they would be in the next day, and were all excited to meet me.  
"Well that sounds ominous..." I thought to myself as I walked to my car at the end of the day.

* * *

The next day started much the same as the day before, Edward was hunched over in the office, but this time I just said "Morning" and dumped my bag in the cubby hole.  
I found a sheet of paper on the bench that I worked at yesterday, and as I looked it over I heard voices. Loud ones.  
"Here we go!" I knew the Cullen's were coming.

My first impression was that Carlisle and Esme must choose their children based on attractiveness.  
Esme had told me yesterday that their five children are adopted. They were unable to have children, but instead of adopting babies or young children, they adopted pre-teens. The pre-teens were now in their twenties and all but Edward were in relationships with each other. I couldn't decide whether it was weird or romantic.

A short, beautiful, pixie-like woman burst in first, she looked at though she was on springs with the way she was bouncing. She bounced over to me, hugged me tightly and introduced herself and the tall blond man who sauntered over behind her.  
"Hi! I'm Alice, and this is Jasper, we're so excited to meet you! We saw pictures of the croquembouche you did, it was so beautiful, way better than the one Edward did last!" I glanced over in the direction of Edward and saw scowl, but otherwise he gave no reaction.

Jasper smiled and nodded, saying "Hey" before dragging Alice away.  
After they left I was recovering from Alice's compliment when a beautiful, tall, blonde woman walked up to me.  
"Hi, I'm Rosalie." And walked off. She didn't smile, just made her statement and walked out of the kitchen. Lovely, the model hates me too.

"Sorry about Rosie, she doesn't like new people. I'm Emmett."  
I shook hands with Emmett, who was tall, broad and had curly brown hair.  
"Hi, I'm Bella. Are you a pastry chef?" I was having trouble keeping up with who did what.

"Nah nah I'm too masculine for that!" His big booming laugh almost drowned out the sounds of Jasper and Edward yelling at him.  
"I help Carlisle out with all the paper work, run out orders and that kinda stuff.  
You need anything, I'm your man."  
"Great, sounds good." I smiled at Emmett.  
Jasper must be the other pastry chef. A couple of minutes later I saw Jasper walking out of the office in chef clothing.

At least one of the people in the kitchen seemed nice. I was proved right when Jasper volunteered to show me where everything was in the kitchen. I gratefully accepted. Yesterday I'd had to sneak around trying to find everything I needed.  
"So yeah, that's pretty much everything. Did I miss anything?" We'd finished the tour and were drinking the coffees Alice had made for us.  
"I don't think so. I'll ask if there's anything I can't find." I liked Jasper. He was quiet, but really sweet. Especially around Alice. It was plain to see that he adored her.

"Awesome. So tell me a bit about you."  
"Not much to tell. Finished high school, studied patisserie for four years, applied for jobs, interviewed, and started here yesterday. That's pretty much it." I shrugged. My life really wasn't very interesting.

Jasper frowned a little but let it go.  
"I guess we should so some work now, huh?" I nodded, looking forward to a better day. I hoped it would be a better day.

Jasper showed me the day to day tasks of the patisserie and we were soon working on what needed to be done for the day.  
Thankfully Edward and I avoided each other for the rest of the day and I escaped at the end of the day, feeling better about working at Cullen's.


	2. Yelling Always Makes it Better

**Cullen's Patisserie - Chapter 2**

**Hi everyone!**  
**First off I just wanted to thank all of the lovely people who favourited and followed the story, also to the people who favourited me as an author! You all made me smile and I'm happy that people want to keep reading my story.**

**Thank you also to those who reviewed! I know that Edward seems like a total wanker at the moment, but I swear he'll be nicer, he's just dealing with some pretty full on stuff.**

**I forget in chapter 1 to put up a disclaimer, so I thought I'd better do it now.**  
**Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight or anything affiliated with it, Stephanie Meyer does. Cullen's Patisserie is mine. I only wish is was real so I could work there!**

**Anyways, enjoy the next chaper!**

**Sam :)**

* * *

The first few months at Cullen's passed fairly uneventfully, I enjoyed the work I was doing, it challenged me and kept me endlessly entertained.  
My co-workers, with the exception of Rosalie and Edward, were amazing, incorporating me almost immediately into their family.

Jasper and I entertained each other by having competitions on who could finish our tasks for the day the quickest. Who ever lost had to do the cleaning at the end of the day. At the start I mostly lost, but soon I became quicker and thoroughly enjoyed not having to clean at the end of the day. When Jasper won he would watch me mop the floors, while sipping a cup of coffee and telling me that I 'missed a spot'. I repaid him by splashing dirty water on him.

Alice tried to take me out shopping a lot, and I was able to resist most of the time. She forced me to go with her once, which was torture. We'd been going at it for four hours and I was getting over it.  
"Alice, I'm tired, can we please leave?" I whined when I was tired and hungry.  
"Absolutly not! We're not even half way done!" Alice started skipping. She was excited that we still had so much shopping to go.  
I groaned, hoping I could slip away to at least get some food. I didn't like my chances. Damn pixie.

Rosalie warmed up a little bit, I wouldn't have called us friends exactly, but she'd ask me if I wanted coffee in the mornings. It was a start.  
I just hoped we could get to know each other. I was completely intimidated by her, she was just so beautiful, and she knew it. Somehow though, she didn't seem like a snob, she just knew she was beautiful, it was a fact.  
I admired her for that.

Emmett was my favourite person at Cullen's. He'd always bring me lunch, and tell me jokes if Edward had said something awful to me. He was always coming over to see what I was making, and always offered to do at taste test. I knew he just liked eating pastry, so I always let him test what I was making. He always complimented me extravagantly which made me laugh.

Edward, on the other hand, was constantly nasty, always criticising. I tried to take it in my stride and ignore most of what he said.

I couldn't do anything right according to him. The rest of the Cullens made up for his rudeness, but some days I just wanted to go home and cry.  
The rest of the Cullens felt bad and told me most days they were sorry for Edward and that he just needed time to get to know me.

I asked myself everyday; "How much time did someone take to warm up?"  
One day, I snapped. I'd had a pretty bad day, with one of my cakes burning.  
Edward had yelled all kinds of awful things, most of which I vowed to remove from my memory.  
I'd had to go into the cool room to cry after he'd finished crying, convinced that either he would fire me, or that I would quit.

Emmett came into the cool room and hugged me.  
"Just ignore him Bells, he doesn't mean it."  
"It sure feels like he means it Em. I can't do anything right, and if I do, it's like I don't exist. I don't know how much longer I can take it." I was slowly calming down.  
"I'll talk to him Bells, make him see that he has to stop." Emmett smiled encouragingly at me. I felt a little bit better. He left me to calm down.

I left the cool room and got back to work. I knew everyone was watching me – including Edward. I just ignored them.  
It was towards the end of the day and despite his rigorous attempts to stay away from me, we'd accidentally bumped into each other.  
He made another snide comment. "Watch it, Bella!"

I lost it.

"You want me to watch it? YOU watch it! You've been avoiding me all day after screaming at me, so why couldn't you keep away for the rest of the day? I don't know what I did to you to make you hate me so much, but since we work together, it's completely inappropriate and unprofessional for you to speak to me the way that you do. I don't care what your problem is. Keep it to yourself. I'm going home. I'll see you tomorrow." I finished yelling and grabbed my stuff. I didn't look at anyone and practically ran out of the kitchen.

As soon as I got to my car, I burst into tears. I was shaking and about to become hysterical. I couldn't believe I'd yelled at him like that. I couldn't believe I'd been able to say all I'd wanted to say. I normally hated confrontation, and couldn't say what I wanted to say, but I'd hit my threshold. I was convinced I was going to be fired. No matter how much the rest of the Cullen's liked me, Edward was their family.

Halfway through my hyperventilation I heard a knock on the window. It was Alice, smiling at me.  
"Bella? Are you OK?" I nodded at her, unable to stop hyperventilating.  
Alice then walked around to the passenger side, got in and handed me a tissue.

After I calmed down, Alice said; "That was an impressive bit of yelling! Edward was speechless when you left. In fact we all were."  
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have yelled at him. I just kind of...lost my cool."  
I couldn't look at Alice, convinced she was going to tell me not to come back.

"Are you kidding?! It was awesome! He's been horrible to you, and he deserved it. Esme's giving him a lecture, so he'll back off." She smiled at me, which made me feel better about my job still being there tomorrow.  
"Really? I thought for sure you were going to fire me!"  
Alice shook her head and I breathed a sigh of relief.

"Alice, can I ask you something? You don't have to answer if it's too personal, or none of my business. When she nodded, I took a deep breath and asked what I'd been dying to know since I'd started working at Cullen's.  
"Why does Edward hate me so much?"

Alice looked at me sadly and sighed.  
"He doesn't hate you, Bella. I wish I could tell you why he's been acting this way, but it's not my place. What I can tell you though, is that he was hurt. In the worst way someone can be hurt.  
He's dealing with it in the best way he can. Unfortunately he's not dealing in the way we hoped. It's really not you, he's just using you to work though his anger. If you give him more time, I'm sure he'll come around to you."

She smiled, squeezed my hand, and got out of the car.  
I had a lot to think about.

Yelling at Edward was the best thing I could have done.  
When I came in the next day he looked up and smiled crookedly at me and said; "Morning."  
I tried to keep the shock I was feeling off my face and smiled back, returning his greeting. I had to force myself to breath again

The rest of the day passed pleasantly.  
As I was leaving, Esme caught up to me.  
"Bella! Are you free tonight?"  
"Yeah I am. Why?"  
"Come over for dinner with the family, we'd love to have you!"  
"Sure, I'd love to."

I arrived at the Cullen house a little nervously. I'd spent time with Alice outside of work, but not the others. Rosalie and I weren't all that friendly, and Edward just plain didn't like me.

I considered turning around and going back home but I knew they were expecting me.  
"Come on Bella, stop being stupid. You can do this. Just suck it up and knock on the door. Just do it."  
I sighed, shaking my head at myself for being so ridiculous.  
Here goes nothing...


	3. Dinner with the Cullens

**Cullen's Patisserie - Chapter 3**

**Disclaimer - I don't own any of the characters in this story, Stephanie Meyer does. I do however, own Cullen's Patisserie.**

**Hey readers,**

**Thank you for the reviews, much appreciated! **  
**Here is the next chapter, not a super long one, but hopefully enjoyable!**

* * *

I took the plunge and knocked on the door.  
Emmett answered and, grinning broadly he wrapped me in a hug, squeezing the life out of me.  
"Bells, you came!"  
"Can't breath Emmett!" I gasped, feeling my ribs creak a little.  
"Oops, sorry!" He let out his booming laugh and grabbed me by the arm, taking me for a quick tour of the house.

"Lounge room, powder room, games room, basement, Esme and Carlisle's room, bar, bathroom, Rose and my room, Alice and Jazz's room, Edward's room, spare room, bathroom, attic, living room and kitchen. That concludes our tour!"  
I was gasping for air and doubled over after Emmett pulled me to a stop. We'd run up and down three flights of stairs, and I realised just how unfit I was.

The rest of the family were watching me with interest, and I waved weakly trying to get my breath back.  
"Wow you're unfit Bells! Looks like were going to have to work on that!"  
He poked me in the belly and boomed with laughter.  
I doubled over again, teasing Emmett.  
"Ow jeez Emmett, I bet that's going to leave a massive bruise!"

Emmett paled a little, but when he saw me laughing a little bit, he narrowed his eyes and started tickling me. This caused me to fall to the floor laughing and squirming. The rest of the family and Emmett were laughing at me, which caused me to laugh more.

Eventually Rose dragged Emmett away, rolling her eyes. She didn't look angry, which I took as a good sign. She's been standing close to Edward when we walked into the kitchen. I wondered if the way Rosalie have been acting towards me had anything to do with Edward. They seemed pretty close, so I had a feeling she was just being protective.

Unfortunately for me, I was placed in between Edward and Rosalie for dinner. Neither of them spoke to me, but luckily Jasper was opposite me, so we talked all things pastry.  
Towards the end of dinner there was a lull in the conversation.  
Esme felt the need to fill the silence, and felt that I needed some embarrassment as an initiation to the family.

"So Bella, tell us about you. We've been working together for a while now, so I feel like we should get to know you better." All eyes turned to me and I felt myself going a little red with all the attention.  
"Ah OK, well there's not much to tell...I was born in Forks, moved to Arizona with my mum when my parents divorced. When I was 16 I moved back to Forks with my dad. After high school I studied here in Seattle, and when I finished, I applied for as many pastry chef jobs as I could. That's pretty much it, the rest you know."

"So do you all live here?" I wasn't sure if Edward, Alice, Jasper, Rosalie and Emmett just had rooms here or if they lived here permanently.  
"No, just Esme and I. We keep their rooms in case they stay over, but mostly they live at their own places." Everyone nodded after Carlisle stopped speaking.  
"It's a beautiful house, did you do the interior decorating Esme?" Esme had told me that in her spare time she liked to renovate old houses and sell them when she was done.  
"I did, thank you Bella! I loved it so much that I couldn't bear to part with it. So here we are."

The rest of the dinner passed uneventfully. I found out Alice was pursuing a career in fashion, and Rosalie worked as a mechanic, when she wasn't at the patisserie. I couldn't believe perfect, beautiful Rosalie, fixed cars for a living!

* * *

After that dinner things slowly got better between Edward and I, instead of just "Morning", we started talking. He'd ask me how my weekend was, if I thought the cake he was working on needed any other decorating.  
It started out small, but soon we were laughing and joking together.

I also started spending more time with the rest of the Cullen's.  
As she started to see Edward warm up to me, Rosalie let down her guard and became more friendly to me. We found we had a lot more in common that she or I first thought. We were both passionate chocoholics and loved nothing more than a really good hot chocolate.

Rosalie asked me if I wanted to go to a cafe for hot chocolate one day. Surprised, I agreed. We went to her favourite cafe and ordered drinks. She looked like she wanted to say something, and I figured it would be something about Edward.  
"I'm sure you're wondering why I asked you to come with me today?" I nodded.

"I wanted to apologise. I know that I haven't exactly been welcoming to you, unlike the rest of my family.  
Edward and I have been really close for a long time now and I feel very protective of him. When you came along I didn't know how I felt about a beautiful woman working with him.  
Don't get me wrong, I'm not in love with Edward, I just worry about him. He's my brother and I hate seeing him hurt."

She thought I was beautiful? Has she looked in a mirror lately?  
"I have no intention of hurting Edward, Rosalie. I just want to have a pleasant working environment. He has nothing to fear from me." Rosalie nodded, smiling a little.  
"I know that, and Edward knows that. It doesn't seem like he does, but I think he's started working it out.

I know we've all been saying it, but if you give him time, he'll be a great friend. He's my best friend. Except Emmett of course!" We both laughed.

I knew that Rosalie and I had the potential to be really good friends. I just hoped she would allow us to.

* * *

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**I'd love to hear your thoughts.**

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	4. The spilling of Edward's big secret

**Cullen's Patisserie - Chapter 4**

**Disclaimer - I don't own any of the characters in this story, Stephanie Meyer does. I do own Cullen's Patisserie, with the hope that one day it will actually exist!**

**Warning: This chapter contains very adult themes.**

**Hey everyone! **  
**Thanks to all my new followers and reviewers, much love to you all! **  
**Hope you like this chapter, we find out what Edward's problem is, yay!**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

"Happy Birthday Emmett!"  
We'd just toasted to Emmett's 25th Birthday. He was grinning from ear to ear, with a beer in hand.  
I'd been asked to join the Cullen clan and Emmett's rowdy friends to celebrate Emmett's birthday. He wanted to celebrate at his favourite restaurant, which turned into a bar and on the weekends, a club. Since it was a Monday night, we had to settle for just the bar.

Edward and I were sitting down talking and drinking, and while I didn't feel like drinking too much, Edward was getting a bit tipsy and happy.  
Edward and I were having our first real conversation. I wondered how much I could push him.

I decided it might be time to see if he'd tell me his secret.  
"So Edward, why did you hate me when we first me?" I decided to cut to the chase.  
"I'm really, really sorry about that Bella. I was so mean to you." He moaned putting his face in his hands.

"It's OK, Edward; I just want to know why?"  
I pulled his face away from his hands and turned his face to mine. I smiled encouragingly and nodded.  
"Alright, alright, I'll tell you. I didn't hate you, not at all. I was hurt, badly.  
I was taking it out on you and I'm so sorry for that. You were the first woman I'd really had contact with since...the woman who'd hurt me. I guess seeing you and working with you brought it all up again. It's not you, it's just working with a woman again"

Edward paused to take a long sip of his drink. He sighed, smiled crookedly at me and continued his story.  
"About a year and a half ago we had a new pastry chef start working with us. She was pretty, competent and funny. We started dating pretty quickly and things got intense. She said all the right things and did all the right things. I fell hook, line and sinker.  
She started telling me that she didn't like the way my family looked at her when we were together. She said she loved me but she didn't like being around them outside work. I, like the idiot was, fell for it and stopped seeing them outside of work. I spent all my time with her.  
Six months later, we moved in together and I'd barely seen my family in that time. I didn't talk to them except for work stuff. She was pulling me further and further away from them and I just let her."

Edward was close to tears at this point and my heart ached for him. I wanted to hug him, but I held back. As much as I wanted to comfort him and ease his pain, I needed to hear the whole story. I didn't know if he would tell me the rest if he didn't tell me now.

"A couple of months after we moved in together, I started feeling strange about the relationship. I missed my family. Before I had a chance to talk to her about it, or even talk to my family, she dropped a bomb on me.  
She told me she was pregnant. I was happy, so happy. I wanted a baby and I knew it was right to be with her. How wrong I was.I decided I should tell my family, so I announced it at work one day. Tanya, my girlfriend, went crazy at me. When we got home she started screaming, saying it was none of their business. I tried to reason with her but it didn't work. Part of me knew that there was something seriously wrong in my relationship. There wasn't anything I could do though. I thought I loved her, and I wanted to be in the babies life. Tanya wouldn't let me see my family all the way through the pregnancy. I was sad, but I didn't let her see. When the baby was born all doubts about Tanya faded away. We had created the most beautiful little girl. We called her Isabelle."

Edward was crying now, and I was close to tears. I knew that the reminder of his baby had been brought up when he learned my name was Isabelle.  
He breathed for a few moments and then continued.

"Things went well for the first few weeks, but I could tell the lack of sleep was really affecting Tanya. When the baby cried, Tanya would scream back, and this of course, made things worse. I came home one night to a silent house. I knew something was wrong immediately. The house was never quiet; usually if the baby was sleeping there was at least music or the TV on. I walked into the living room to see Tanya crouched on the ground staring at something with a smile on her face. One of those manic smiles that make you cringe.  
I was afraid to look where she was looking, I almost knew what I would see and it scared me to death. But I knew I had to look. I turned and froze when I saw my baby, my beautiful little baby girl, crumpled on the floor at the bottom of the wall.  
I walked over and gently picked her up. She wasn't moving and when I checked, she wasn't breathing. Tanya had killed our baby.  
That was over a year ago and I still haven't come to terms with what happened."

Edward stopped talking then, and looked like he was going to fall to pieces. I helped him stand and walked out of the bar with him. I helped him into my car and drove to my place. Edward didn't say anything, so neither did I.  
When I got to my house I pulled him inside, gave him some water and let him to my spare room. He silently crawled into the bed and closed his eyes.

I sat in the kitchen with some ice-cream, thinking over what he told me.  
I felt awful for yelling at him, though I reasoned with myself. I didn't know that he was dealing with something so horrible.  
My heart broke for him and I wanted to do anything and everything I could to heal his pain.

**Edward's POV**

When Bella left the room I breathed a sigh of relief. Every time the subject of Tanya was brought up I broke down. Even after a year I couldn't deal fully with the pain.  
I felt better about telling Bella. She had a right to know after all the awful things I'd said to her. She was right to yell at me the way she did.

I decided to try and make it up to her. When I wasn't feeling like jumping off the nearest bridge, of course.  
I got up off the bed a paced for a while thinking about all the horrible things Tanya did. Telling Bella everything that had happened was the most I'd thought about it in months.

I realised I had to truly feel the pain of what happened to move on. So I could try to be a whole person. Be the kind of person that someone like Bella could love. I knew that Bella would never love me, she'd seen what a mess I was.  
I just hoped that one day someone as kind, caring, beautiful and talented as her would love me.

I only wish that it could be Bella.  
I thrust that thought out of my mind, and lay back down on the bed. I curled into the foetal position and re-lived all of my terrible memories.

I cried myself to sleep, hoping the morning would be better.


	5. Bella & Edward's day of fun

**Cullen's Patisserie - Chapter 5**

**Disclaimer - I don't own any of the characters, Stephenie Meyer does.**

**Hey guys, heres the next chapter, once again thank you to my new followers and to the lovely people who left me a review. It makes my day when you review, so please, let me know what you think!**

Bella's POV

I was up and munching on some toast the next morning when Edward walked in. I got up and poured some coffee, the way I knew he liked it, and handed it to him, smiling.  
He smiled at me, weakly and sat down to drink his coffee.  
"Toast?" I held up my uneaten slice.  
Edward just shook his heat, nursing his coffee.

I watched him, wondering if I should mention anything about the night before, before deciding to leave it and give him space.  
"I'm just going to jump in the shower and then I'll drive you home."  
"Wait."  
I stopped and watched him, wondering if he wanted to talk.

"What are you doing today?" The patisserie was closed on Tuesdays, so we all had the day to relax. I hadn't planned anything, I thought I'd relax at home.  
"Nothing, I was just going to hang out here."  
"Would you mind if I joined you? I don't want to be alone right now." He looked sad and in need of some serious cheering up. I decided to give him a day choc full of fun.

"Sure no problems, how about we do something fun?"  
Edward nodded, smiling at me. "What did you have in mind?"  
"I'm not sure yet. I'll have a shower and come up with something awesome."  
I stood under the hot water thinking to myself.  
Fun. What did people do for fun in Seattle? What did Edward like to do for fun? How do you even cheer someone up?

I got out of the shower and decided to call Emmett for ideas. He would be severely hung over I knew, but hopefully he'd have an idea.  
"Hello?" He sounded bad. Cotton mouth, sever headache bad. I could have fun with this!  
"Hi Emmett! It's Bella!" I put on my extra perky, extra loud voice.  
"Ugh Bells, too loud." He was whispering now.  
"Ha ha sorry Emmett!" I toned it down a few notches. "Em, can you help me out? I want to cheer Edward up, what's something fun to do to cheer him up?"

" Well, I can think of one thing and it would definitely cheer him up, big time."  
Emmett sounded fairly suspicious, but I decided to go with it.  
"Oh yeah? What is it?"  
"Well you might call it the horizontal tango..." Damn it.  
"Emmett!" Extra perky, extra loud Bella was back.

I was blushing bright red at this point. I heard Edward clearing his throat, and looked to see him watching me at my bedroom door. He had a slight smile on his lips as if he knew what Emmett had said.  
I turned away to hear Emmett laughing his big booming laugh and then abruptly stop and whisper "Ow"  
"Serves you right!" I snapped and ended the call.  
I turned back to Edward and rolled my eyes.

Given the rough start, Edward and I had a surprisingly good day.  
We went out and got some brunch at a cafe, before walking around the city. The sun was out so we enjoyed the rare nice weather.  
We went to the movies and the movie we saw was so lame we spent the entire time in hysterics.

We went back to my place after the movie and sat down in front of the TV.  
"Thanks for today Bella, I had a really great day. I haven't had this much fun in a really long time." He looked sad for a moment but then brightened and smiled the most beautiful genuine smile. My heart skipped a full beat.  
Oh dear, I was in trouble. I knew it was the wrong time, but I wanted to kiss him. I knew I couldn't though. We'd just started really becoming friends and I didn't want to ruin that. Besides, he didn't feel the same.  
"You're welcome, I thought you could do with some cheering up. I'm just sorry I picked such a truly crap movie!" This caused us to burst into another round of hysterical laughter, as we remembered different parts of the movie.  
As we calmed down, I found myself watching Edward, how his eyes sparkled, how his hair shined bronze in the sun and mahogany in darker light.  
What is happening to me?

* * *

After our day of fun, Edward and I started spending more and more time together. The more time we spent together, the more I got butterflies when I saw him. I smiled every time I heard his name.I knew he was still healing, and that the hurt would never really go away. I just hoped he could find a way to move on. I knew he wouldn't forget his daughter. I didn't want him to, but I hoped he could find some room in his heart for me.  
I found myself making excuses to touch him, because when I did, my skin burned wherever we touched.  
I knew that he didn't feel the same way about me, but I couldn't help but become addicted to spending time with him.

All this spending time with Edward, meant spending time with the rest of the Cullen's, which was fine with me. Rosalie and I had become friends once she saw Edward start to spend time with me and trust me.  
Alice and I saw each other as sisters and had lots of girly time, spending nights together watching movies, eating junk food and gossiping like school girls.

On one such movie night, Alice decided to ambush me. "So...when are you going to tell Edward you love him?" I was speechless. I thought I'd hid it so well. How the heck did she know? "What? I don't love Edward! Where'd you get that idea?" Alice just gave with a withering glare and went back to watching the movie.

"All the family knows, it's blindingly obvious."  
I stared at her with my mouth gaping slightly open.  
"Come on Bella, how stupid do you think we are?"  
"Does Edward know?" I didn't think I'd get away with the 'playing dumb' act anymore.

"No, for some reason you two are oblivious about each other. It's really annoying, we're all waiting for you two to get married, so you can become part of our family for real!"  
She was off on one of her top speed rants. She barely stopped for breath, I had no idea how she did it.  
"I can't wait until you're my sister! I'll plan your wedding, I'm thinking blue, you look good in blue. Or we could go gold, I saw some beautiful gold lanterns the other day..." This was when I decided to tune Alice out. There was no stopping her.

I tuned back in at one point and realised I'd let her go too far. She'd started talking about the baby shower she was going to plan for us.  
"ALICE! Stop planning my future!" She pouted and I rolled my eyes. "You're no fun Bella!"  
"I'm plenty of fun! You're just getting a bit carried away. Go plan your own baby shower!" She grinned and had a glint in her eyes.  
"Oh no, you've already planned it haven't you?" Poor Jasper. I certainly didn't envy him sometime. Alice was a force of nature.

* * *

One night I was over at Carlisle and Esme's place, and we were all sitting around with drinks laughing at Emmett. He'd just fallen off his chair, which after a couple of drinks was the funniest thing we'd ever seen. Luckily he was laughing just as hard as the rest of us.

Alice suddenly bounced out of the room and came back with an empty bottle. I looked at her warily and she grinned at me.  
Jasper, Emmett, Rosalie and Edward started cheering, while Carlisle and Esme backed out of the room, mumbling something about getting some more food.

Alice squealed. "Truth or Dare!" I tried to refuse, I hated truth or dare. Either way it was going to be bad. I knew that if I picked truth, I would get asked if I liked Edward, and if I picked dare, I would probably have to kiss Edward. Either way, I absolutely didn't want that to happen.

Of course everyone started begging me, including Edward, looking at me with the most adorable puppy dog eyes. I ended up giving in, much to my annoyance. So, with a deep sigh I spun the bottle first. It landed on Emmett and I knew he'd pick dare. I was right of course.  
"DARE!" Wow he could be loud!

"Emmett, I dare you to do a handstand, and hold it as long as you can." He started laughing, got up and did a handstand. For 30 seconds. I was pretty impressed, and cheered along with the rest of the Cullens. "Baby I didn't know you could do a hand stand! That was pretty hot." Emmett and Rosalie started making out, causing the rest of us to yell out; "Get a room!"

Emmett spun the bottle once he and Rosalie detangled, and it landed on Alice. "Truth or dare, Alice?"  
"Truth!" She and Emmett eyed each other off before he grinned, rubbing his hands together.

"Tell us a secret you know about someone here." Alice smiled, winked at Emmett and looked and me, then at Edward. Her eyes flicked between us a few times and then looked at Rosalie. Rosalie winked at Alice and looked between Edward and I. Great, Alice is so going to out my secret. How embarrassing.

"I know that Bella loves someone, and that Edward loves someone, but that they don't want to tell the person they love." Very cryptic, Alice. I of course blushed bright red, and couldn't bring myself to look at Edward. I could feel his eyes burning into the side of my head.

Everybody was quiet and you could cut the tension with a knife. "Spin, Alice." Jasper broke the silence and saved me from the awkwardness.  
I didn't feel any better when I saw who Alice landed on, though. Alice landed on me. Crap.

Truth or dare? Truth or dare? Which was worse? "Truth or dare, Bella?" Alice was smiling triumphantly at me, just waiting to see what I'd choose. Crap. "Truth." Crap, why did I pick truth?

"Bella, who do you love?" I swallowed hard and could feel myself turning tomato red. "Uh I don't know what you're talking about, Alice. I don't love anyone." I wasn't exactly lying, I didn't love Edward. I liked him. A lot. But I didn't love him, not yet. At least I don't think I did...

Alice looked furious, and pulled me out of the room. She was surprisingly strong for someone so small! "Bella!" She was hissing she was so angry. "Why did you lie? You can't lie during truth or dare!" I just rolled my eyes at her. "I didn't lie Alice, I don't love anyone. I like someone, I won't lie. I just don't love him. Not yet anyway." Now it was Alice's turn to roll her eyes.

"Why does it matter, you could of said like, why do you have to be so stubborn?!" She was getting dangerously high pitched. Pretty soon she'd be at decimals only dogs could hear. I grabbed her by the shoulders to try and calm her down.

"Alice! I'm not ready to tell him, much less during a game of truth or dare. Besides he doesn't like me, so there's no point in telling him."  
She groaned and mimed smashing her head against the wall. So dramatic.

I turned around when I heard someone clear their throat. It was Rosalie, coming to see what the hold up was. "Are you guys coming back in? Emmett's going to start doing shots if you don't come in soon!" Alice and I glared at each other for a minute.

"Actually I'm gunna head home, I'm tired." Alice was watching me, knowing I was weaseling out of telling Edward how I felt. "Bella, you'd better tell him soon!" I just sighed, rolled my eyes and walked back in to get my things. I said my good byes and headed out. Phew, close call. Alice could be scary sometimes. When I got to my car I heard someone running behind me. It was Edward, and I forgot to breathe for a moment. Crap. I knew I wasn't going to get away that easily.

"Bella, wait!" He came to stand in front of me, close enough to kiss. I thought he was going to, for a moment.  
"What was that about back there? Who do you love?" He said, with what looked like hope in his eyes. Why did he look hopeful? "Don't worry about it Edward, it's nothing. Just Alice being Alice. You know how she is." I hoped he wouldn't push it. Tonight really wasn't my night.

"Cut the crap Bella, it's something. She was right about me, I do love someone. So if she's right about me, I'd bet she's right about you too. Just tell me." Edward put on the puppy dog eyes again and I nearly caved. Nearly. I wasn't ready to bare my soul to him yet. I didn't have the strength to be rejected right then.

"Please, just leave it for tonight. I can't right now. I'll talk to you later." I got in my car before he could stop me. As I drove away, I couldn't stop a tear slipping out.

I wonder who Edward loves?

* * *

**Jeez Bella and Edward are thick! Hope they reveal their feelings soon, 'cos if they don't our favourite pixie will ;)**


	6. Elephants, gypsies and the Queen

**Cullen's Patisserie - Chapter 6**

**Disclaimer - Stephenie Meyer owns all of the characters in this story. I own Cullen's Patisserie and the storyline.**

**Hey all,**

**Once again thank you muchely for the follows and the review. Much love to all of you :)**

**Shorted chapter today, really just fluff about Alice's crazy ideas. Enjoy, and let me know what you think!**

* * *

Edward's POV

I watched Bella's car drive away and I wished she'd stayed. "She doesn't love me, Alice is wrong." I thought to myself.  
I trudged back inside and sat on the couch in the living room. Everyone smiled sympathetically at me and left the room. Alice of course, stayed and sat next to me.

"She loves you, Edward. She just doesn't want to admit it to herself. Or anyone else. Just give her time, she'll come around." Alice pulled me in for a hug.  
After we pulled away, she bounced out of the room.  
"I can't wait 'till Bella's officially my sister!" She trilled.  
Oh no, I bet she's planning our wedding already.

* * *

A few months later, it was coming up to Alice's birthday and she'd said she wanted to have a party at Carlisle and Esme's mansion of a house. It was always a favourite of ours for parties. There was so much space and a beautiful garden out the back.

It had been two weeks since the disastrous game of 'Truth or Dare' and Bella and I hadn't spoken about what had happened. I'd decided to give her space, hoping that she'd crack and tell me who she loved. A part of me hoped it was me that she loved, but despite Alice's assurances, I couldn't believe that she would actually love me. I was such a mess, who would love me?

In the weeks and days leading up to Alice's party she assigned each member of the family, which included Bella, a job to do. My job was music. It hadn't taken me long to make up a play list of all of Alice's favourite songs, so I had a lot of time for brooding about what would happen at the party. I hoped Bella would have a few drinks so I could get her to spill how she felt about me. It was better than brooding about more painful things.

The night of the party, I was nervous. I was pacing the floor of my room so much I thought I'd wear the carpet through.  
Bella arrived an hour before the guests were due to arrive, and helped Esme with the food.  
Bella had been put in charge of the birthday cake. Alice obviously trusted Bella; she was really picky when it came to who made her birthday cakes.

Guests started to arrive and we all mingled. I saw Bella sitting in the kitchen on her own. I realised she didn't know most of our friends, so I decided to keep her company. I hoped I could get a few drinks in her.  
"Hey Bella" She turned to me and smiled. Seeing her smile made my heart race a million miles an hour. I wanted to kiss her so bad.

"Hey Edward. Having fun?" She didn't have a drink yet so I poured her a glass of her favourite wine.  
"Yeah, it's one of Alice's better parties. Most of them are crazy over the top."  
Bella thanked me for the wine and took a sip.  
"This isn't over the top?" She looked around sceptically. The decorations Alice had put up were intense. She'd put up massive lanterns she'd gotten from who knows where. She'd put glitter on every surface, streamers hanging from every inch of the ceiling and numerous balloons spread out around the house. Amazingly it actually looked tasteful. She certainly had talent, that sister of mine.  
"Well no, last year she had circus performers, a gypsy band and a monkey walking around with snacks. This is tame by Alice's standards."

Bella burst out laughing, shaking her head at Alice.  
"She's crazy!" I laughed along with Bella, recalling some of Alice's crazier parties. One year she'd tried to get an elephant to come and give rides to the guests. It'd taken a good month to talk her out of that one.  
There was also the year that she'd wanted to hire someone from the royal family in England to come as a guest. She'd had her heart set on having the Queen come to her party.

"Yep she's crazy. I love her, but she has some odd ideas." Bella and I smiled at each other, watching Alice flit around the party, talking to all of her guests.

* * *

"Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Alice, Happy Birthday to you!"  
Alice clapped her hands as the cake was brought out by Bella. She'd out done herself, the cake was amazing. Bella had done a three tier masterpiece, complete with little items of clothing, and little figurines with were meant to resemble the Cullen family. It was a beautiful cake.

I walked up behind Bella, and stood as close as I could get without touching her. I whispered in her ear.  
"Beautiful job on the cake, Bella." I saw her shiver, and I smiled in triumph. Maybe there was hope for me after all. She turned around and looked a little breathless.  
"Thanks, Edward. I hoped you'd like it." I smiled, leaned in and whispered in her ear again. I wanted to make her shiver again.  
"Of course, it's amazing." I walked off chuckling to myself. She'd shivered again.

Later on, I noticed Bella had had a few drinks and seemed to be more talkative. I decided to try and weasel out of her how she felt about me.  
Dragging her over to a quiet spot in the party, I tried some small talk before ambushing her.

"Having fun?"  
"Yeah I am, it really is a great party." OK that's more than enough small talk.  
"Bella. I wanted to ask you something. I mean we're good friends. Really good friends. We should be able to be honest with each other, right?"  
Bella nodded at me, but looked wary, as though she knew what I was going to ask her.  
"Bella...who do you like?" Well here goes!

"Edward I told you, Alice is wrong. I don't like anyone." She smiled at me, got up and walked away. Damn it. Looks like it's not going to be that easy.  
I went to get another drink, and vowed to think of another way to get her to tell me who she liked.


	7. The aftermath of too much drink

**Cullen's Patisserie - Chapter 7**

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, Stephenie Meyer does.**

**Hi everyone,**

**Thank you to my lovely new followers and the reviews I recieved. **

**A few people feel that I've turned the story in to something a bit too high school. I can see where you're coming from, but the Cullen kids and Bella are in their early 20s, and I don't know about the rest of you, but people in their early 20s really aren't that different from teenagers. Yes, we have jobs and more responsibility, but when it comes down to it, we get pretty excited around the opposite sex. **  
**Bella doesn't realise she loves Edward yet, and vice versa. They both think there's no way the other person could possibly have feelings for them.**

**Anyways, just wanted to clear that up. **  
**Thanks for reading, and enjoy!**

**Sam :)**

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Bella's POV

I opened my eyes and looked around. Where was I? And why did I have a massive headache?  
What happened last night? Then it hit me.  
After Edward had asked me who I liked, I'd proceeded to get drunk. So, so drunk.  
I'd also found Edward later in the night and we danced together. We then somehow ended up in his room. In his bed. Naked. Crap.

I looked under the covers and discovered that I was still naked. I winced and looked at Edward, who was sleeping next to me. He was also naked. I couldn't believe I'd slept with him. He's going to want to talk about this. I'm going to have to avoid him. I don't want to have that conversation with him. I knew what he would say.  
"I'm sorry Bella, it was just a one time thing. I only see you as a friend."

I really didn't want to have the friend-zone conversation right now.  
I snuck out of bed, found my clothes and crept out of the room.  
It didn't seem like anyone else was up, and I made it to the front door.  
Unfortunately that was where my luck ran out.  
"Bella! Do you want some breakfast before you sneak out?"  
It was Rosalie, and when I turned around she was watching me with a sly grin. Damn it, I'd been caught.

Rosalie looked like the cat who'd got the cream.  
"No thanks Rose, I'm just going to head home. I've got some stuff to do."  
I hoped she'd let me go. Of course luck still wasn't on my side.  
"Oh nonsense, come and join us!" She marched over, still grinning, and dragged me into the kitchen.

The whole Cullen family with the exception of Edward, were sitting down with large plates of bacon and eggs. My stomach growled at the smell and I allowed myself to be dragged over to an empty spot at the table.  
Everyone was watching me with big grins on their faces. I decided to ignore them and tucked in to the delicious food.

"So Bella, did you have fun last night?" Emmett was wiggling his eyebrows up and down. This was going to be torture. I had a feeling, a very bad feeling, that I was going to be very embarrassed during this conversation. Sighing I decided to pretend like nothing happened between Edward and I.

"Yeah it was a great party. I think I had too much to drink though, my head is pounding." Esme passed me some painkillers and I smiled gratefully at her.  
"Is Edward still sleeping? He must be so tired today..." Jasper had a serious look on his face but I could tell he was close to cracking up. Everyone else was barely restraining their laughter.  
I of course, was turning tomato red. I leaned over my food and continued eating. I was so embarrassed. Something occurred to me. What if they'd been able to hear everything?

"Yeah, you know it sounded like he was up pretty late. How about you Bella, were you up late too?" Emmett was the picture of innocence. I wanted to kill him. The rest of the family laughed at that, unable to control themselves now. Even Carlisle and Esme were laughing. I decided it was time to go, before I died of embarrassment, or Edward woke up. Whichever one came first.

"I've gotta go. Happy Birthday, Alice." I left the room as fast as I could without breaking into a run.  
"Bella, wait! Hang on." Alice ran to catch up with me.  
"Yeah, Alice? I've really got things to do today."  
"Don't worry about them, they're just happy you and Edward are together. Finally." Together? Was she crazy?

"Alice, we're not together. We were both drunk and made a mistake, that's all." She looked at me in disbelief.  
"Seriously? It wasn't a mistake!" I just shook my head and opened the door.  
"Bye Alice." I had to get out of there.

The next couple of weeks, Edward and I avoided each other. I figured he didn't want to have that awkward conversation either.  
The family tried talking me into talking to Edward again, each of them trying a different tactic. Edward and I spoke to each other about work related issues, and we were very polite, but we never spoke on a personal level.

I told everyone in the family that I wasn't going to be the first one to speak. If he wanted to talk to me, he would. If he didn't want to talk to me then I certainly didn't have anything to say to him.

* * *

Edward POV

I woke up after Alice's party with a splitting headache. I looked around my room struggling to remember what I'd done the night before. Since I was naked I had to work out who I'd done. The night was a blur, but I could remember dancing with Bella, in a pretty raunchy way. I think we'd kissed too. I couldn't remember anything else though.

I got up and had a shower, before making my way downstairs to the kitchen. Some breakfast would make me feel better, I was sure of it.  
Esme was sitting at the breakfast bar, nursing a cup of coffee. I poured one for myself as she watched me.  
"What happened last night, Esme?" She looked a little shocked.  
"You don't remember?" I shook my head. I really wished I could remember. Had something happened with Bella?

"I'm not touching this one, I'm sure Alice will tell you all about it." Esme walked out of the kitchen smiling happily. Oh no, this can't be good.  
Alice bounced into the kitched, smiling at me gleefully. I narrowed my eyes at her.  
"What are you so happy about, Alice? Aren't you hungover?" She giggled and shook her head.  
"Nope, I'm not hungover, some of us have more self control!" She winked at me. I groaned, she was so loud when she was excited.

"I'm so happy about you and Bella, I've been waiting for this for ages!" She jumped up and down on the spot.  
"What do you mean? What happened with Bella and I?" I frowned. Was it Bella I'd slept with?  
"You don't remember, do you? Oh Edward, you're hopeless. You and Bella slept together last night. How can you not remember that?" She looked disappointed with me. I didn't blame her, I was disappointed with me for not remembering.

"Seriously? Wow." I tried to remember what happened, but nothing came to me. Then, as a took a swig of my coffee, it came back to me. Dancing to some 80s song, drinking, stumbling back to my room, getting naked. I couldn't believe I'd actually slept with Bella and that she'd left before I woke up.  
"Did you see her this morning? When did she leave?" I wanted to know if Bella had said anything about what had happened.

"She left early, when we were all having breakfast. Rose convinced her to join us." Alice looked like she wasn't telling me everything.  
"Did she say anything, Alice?" She wasn't meeting my eyes. Damn pixie.  
"She denied it, even though we could hear everything. You guys were pretty loud, you know." I looked down at my coffee, blushing. I defenetly remembered that. "Okay, she denied it, but did she say anything else? There's no way Emmett didn't tease her." I knew what Emmett could be like.

"Yes, Emmett teased her, Jazz did too. She just said she was drunk, nothing else. She left before she said anything else." She smiled at me sympathetically. Maybe Bella regretted it. Maybe she wanted nothing else to do with me.  
I realised then that even though we'd both been drunk, it had been an amazing night. I wanted more. I didn't just want drunken sex. Or any other kind of sex. I wanted to wake up to her every morning. I realised then what I hadn't admitted to myself or anyone else before now.

I was in love with Bella.


	8. Friend-zoned in the cool room

**Cullen's Patisserie - Chapter 8**

**Hey everyone, I know, I know, I've left updating for a little longer than usual, sorry!**  
**Finally, what we've all been waiting for! Enjoy lovelies xx**

* * *

One day the family cracked. I guess they were sick of us avoiding each other and they decided to resort to drastic measures.  
We were all at work and everyone happened to be in the kitchen. I went into the cool room to get out some cream, which I couldn't find. Edward came in while I was still looking. The door closed behind him. I found the cream and pushed the door to get out, but it wouldn't budge. I tried again, but still nothing.

"Edward, the door wont open." I pushed again, but gave up when I saw it wasn't budging. Crap. "Here, let me try." Even Edward couldn't get it open. We looked at each other, realising suddenly that it wasn't an accident that the door wouldn't open. "Alice! Open the door!" Edward yelled, hoping she could hear us. We banged on the door, hoping in vain that we were wrong, that it was just an accident.  
"No! I won't open it until you two talk!" I knew what she was doing, and I figured the rest of the family was in on it too.

Edward swore, and looked at me, raising an eyebrow. Wow. He looked attractive when he did that. Frankly, he looked attractive when he did pretty much anything. Damn you Alice! I really didn't want to be trapped in here with him. Being rejected in a cool room wasn't my idea of fun. "Guess we should talk." Edward broke the silence. I nodded, motioning for him to go first. I sure wasn't going to be the one to spill my feelings.

"OK then, I'll go first. I've been hurting for a long time, and I'm still dealing with it." I nodded, waiting as he breathed in deeply. It was getting colder and I knew we couldn't stay in here for too long. "When I first met you I was awful to you, and I'm so very sorry about that. I know I've apologised for it, but it's going to take me a long time to forgive myself for it. You didn't deserve that. As I got to know you, I realised how amazing you are. You're kind, sweet, funny and talented. The list goes on. As time went on, I began to regard you as my best friend." Yep, here we go. I'm about to be seriously friend-zoned. Friend-zoned in a cool room.

"I've regarded you as my best friend for a while now, even though we've had our ups and downs. I realised something through those ups and downs. In fact I realised it the night I told you about Tanya. I've known how I truly feel about you for a long time now. I've just been scared to tell you the truth. I've been scared because I'm positive you don't feel the same, no matter what Alice says. Ever since we slept together I wanted to tell you even more, because that was the best night of my life. But couldn't do it. I was scared. But since we're locked in this cool room, I'm going to tell you how I feel. So here goes. I love you Bella. I'm in love with you, and I hope you love me too."

I was speechless. My mouth was hanging open and I couldn't move. He loved me? Impossible. He couldn't love me. I watched as he walked over to me with a look of pleading in his eyes. "Say something, Bella." I opened and closed my mouth a few times. I'd forgotten how to talk. My knees turned to jelly, and Edward caught me before I fell.

"I love you too Edward." I could only whisper. I was still scared he was going to reject me. But he didn't. He smiled, wrapped his arms around my waist and spun me around, laughing. My arms automatically wound around his neck as I squeezed him tight to me. I laughed with him, my heart beating a million miles an hour. Was this actually happening? Edward stopped spinning us around and I pulled away. Before I knew what was happening, he kissed me. I paused for a second or two, before kissing him back. I felt warm, as though we weren't in the cool room any more. I felt like we were the only two people on the planet and I saw fireworks and stars. All too soon the kiss ended. We were panting, as though we'd been running.

I realised how cold I was again, and I started shivering, my teeth clattering together.  
Edward watched with concern and quickly started banging on the door.  
We must have been in there a while, because Emmett opened the door straight away. Rosalie and Esme pulled me out and wrapped a blanket around me. "It was Alice's idea, sorry guys. We didn't quite think it through." They looked at us apologetically.

Alice waved them off impatiently. She looked between Edward and I. "Well? What happened?" Edward and I didn't answer, he just grabbed my hand and we smiled at each other. Alice squealed, jumping over to us and pulled us into a hug. The rest of the Cullen's looked happy too and hugged us all in turn.

"Finally you guys, we've been waiting for this to happen for ever!" Emmett laughed, high fiving Alice. I rolled my eyes, figuring Alice would have had an accomplice. Edward pulled me away from the family and whispered in my ear. "Do you want to go somewhere not so cold and talk? Preferably somewhere away from Alice." I smiled and nodded, desperate to be alone with him.

Was I dreaming? If I was, I didn't want to wake up.


	9. Fluff and war stories

**Cullen's Patisserie - Chapter 9**

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, Stephanie Meyer does.**

**Hey everyone!** **Here's chapter 9, it's a bit fluffy, kind of like the eye of the storm. I hope you enjoy!**

**Sam :)**

* * *

Edward POV

I dragged Bella out of the kitchen. I needed to be alone with her, away from my family. I loved Alice, but sometimes she really drove me nuts. I drove us to my place. We were both quiet and I was trying to absorb the fact that Bella loved me back. I figured she was doing the same.

We got to my place and sat on the couch facing each other. We just stared at each other, not touching. I had a million things I wanted to say to her, but I didn't know where to start. Luckily she saved me from picking one. "I can't believe I didn't listen to Alice. She was right all along. I just didn't think it made sense for you to love me."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. How could I not love her? "You don't see yourself clearly do you? You're so beautiful, Bella. You're perfect." Bella frowned, and shook her head. I could tell she didn't believe me. I'd just have to make her see what I saw.

"It's true. You're perfect. Me loving you makes perfect sense. You loving me, on the other hand, makes no sense. I'm a mess. You deserve someone who isn't still grieving. Someone who's whole. Someone who isn't damaged." As I said it I realised that I couldn't be with her. I was all wrong for her. I loved her but I didn't think I could give her what she needed.

"I don't want someone who's whole. I want you. I love you and I don't care that you don't think you're right for me. You're wrong. I know you're still hurting and I promise to do everything I can to help you deal with your pain. I want to be here with you, if you'll let me. Please let me." Bella looked at me with pleading eyes. My resolve crumbled.

I wasn't strong enough to walk away. I knew that I should, but looking into her beautiful chocolate brown eyes, I knew I could never say no to her. A stronger man would walk away. I wasn't strong. I leaned in and kissed her. She kissed me back and I knew I would do everything I could to make this work.

* * *

The next few weeks were spent happily. If we weren't at work we were at my place, or at Bella's place, we were hanging around with my family. Our family. Bella was a part of the family now, and I was fairly sure they liked her more than they like me.

We were hanging around at Carlisle and Esme's place one night. We'd just finished a delicious BBQ dinner and were relaxing with cups of coffee and tea. Jasper was telling us about some war movie he watched and most of us were tuning out – Jasper rarely watched a movie that wasn't a war movie. He told us about them every time he watched one and all of us, except Alice, were pretty bored when he went on one of his 'war movie rants'. That's what Rosalie had dubbed them.

Bella and I were having a thumb war, and Jasper was getting quite excited, playing out a particular bit. "...he shot down the plane, it came crashing down..." Rosalie and Emmett were whispering softly to each other, and I was fairly sure the rest of us didn't want to hear what they were whispering about. Rosalie and Emmett tended to spend a lot of time in the bedroom, and most of the time they were out of the bedroom; they talked about what they were going to do the next time they were alone. Ick.

Alice was, as usual staring with rapt attention at Jasper, as though he was telling the most interesting story, which to her, he usually was. Carlisle and Esme seemed to me genuinely interested, but I could tell they were just pretending. The glazed look in their eyes gave them away.

Emmett and Rosalie finished their conversation and Emmett decided enough was enough. "Alright guys, I think it's time for more food!" Surprise, surprise. Emmett was almost as obsessed with eating as he was with Rosalie. He liked to combine the two as often as possible. Everyone except Alice and Jasper readily agreed. Jasper looked disappointed, until Alice whispered something in his ear. He looked a lot happier after that. I didn't want to know.

Seeing my brothers and sisters happy, made me happy. I was getting a bit stir crazy though. Bella and I had decided to take things slow. I had agreed with Bella, but now I was regretting agreeing. I wondered how much longer she wanted to wait? Before we left to follow the others into the kitchen I pulled her close and kissed her. It started out as a soft loving kiss, but soon I deepened it, hoping Bella would catch on. She did. She pulled me closed and deepened the kiss even more. I moaned, unable to help myself.

Bella chose this moment to end the kiss, and pulled me along after her. Damn her. After dessert, Bella stood up, kissed me and said she needed to go. "Do you want to stay at my place tonight?" I hoped she'd agree, but the way she was looking at me told me she probably wouldn't. "Not tonight Edward. I'll see you tomorrow. Bye guys!" I sighed and walked her to her car.

I can't catch a break.


	10. Tanya and text messaging

**Cullen's Patissereie - Chapter 10**

**Disclaimer - Stephanie Meyer owns all of the characters.**

**Hey everyone - I'm back!**  
**Sorry for the delay, I wish I could say I've been crazy busy, but really, I've just had writers block, or something close to it. Anyways, here I am with the next chappy. I'll be honest with you, I've never had to deal with anything like losing a child, or losing anyone, so I don't really know much about that kind of grief. I apologise if I'm not writing this how it would be in real life. **

**Thankfully though, this isn't real life. Although, lets all be honest here, every single one of us wishes at least one of the twilight characters were real! Personally, I'm in a toss up between a little Emmett action, and a little Jasper action. I wouldn't say no to Jackson or Kellan either!**

Chapter 10

Edward POV

The next day at work Alice called me out the front. She didn't look happy.  
I followed her to the front counter and looked at the woman waiting for me.  
Crap. It was Tanya.  
"Hello Edward." She smiled at me, possibly hoping to reassure me.  
It didn't work. Seeing Tanya brought up all the memories I had been trying to force to the back of my mind.

"Tanya. What are you doing here?" This wasn't good.  
"I came here to make amends, Edward. I wanted to say how very sorry I am. I know I did some truly unforgivable things, and I want you to know that I'm getting help.  
I was sick, it took you leaving me to realise how sick I was. I checked myself into a hospital." She looked at me sadly. Did she expect me to forgive her? After what she'd done? I knew I never could.

"I don't expect you to forgive me. In fact I hope you don't. I did something too horrible to forgive. I just wanted to come here and say I'm sorry. I just wanted you to know that I'm sorry, truly sorry." I could see she was close to tears, I knew if she didn't leave soon, I wouldn't be able to hold myself together. I didn't know what to say to her.  
"Are you happy now Edward? Have you moved on?"

"I'm not completely happy, no. But I'm better. I'm working through it, with a therapist. I haven't moved on, but I'm working on it. I have to work on it every second of the day." I really didn't want to talk about this, especially not to Tanya, but I needed her to know that I was going to be okay. Some day. I knew with Bella's help I'd get there.  
Tanya watched me for a while, searching. I don't know what she was looking for, but she must have found it. She smiled sadly at me and walked away, tears running down her face.

Seeing Tanya again brought up all of the feelings of anger and sadness. How could she come and see me after all that she'd done?

Bella came out to the front counter. She put her hand on my face and brought me back to the present.  
"Are you okay Edward? What happened?" She looked at me, then at Alice. Alice was watching me with a worried look on her face.

"I'm fine Bella, it was nothing." I walked back into the kitchen and went back to the dough I'd been rolling out. I put all my anger into the dough, and when I'd worked it all out, the dough was a mess. I threw it away with a sigh and turned around.  
My family were all watching me with worried looks on their faces. Bella came over to me, took my hand, and pulled me outside.

* * *

Bella's POV

After Edward walked back into the kitchen. I turned to Alice.  
"What happened Alice?" She glanced at me and then glanced back towards the kitchen.  
"Tanya was here. She told Edward she was sorry, that she was sick and had been in hospital. If I ever see her again, I'm going to kill her. Literally kill her.  
How dare she come back into his life like that? How dare she!"

I nodded, and followed Alice back into the kitchen. We stood with the family, watching him pound the dough like it was a punching bag. We all exchanged worried looks, but let him get his anger out. He needed to work through his feelings alone.  
Eventually he turned, looking defeated. He stared at us and he looked so lost and hurt. My heart ached for him.

I walked forward, took his hand and let him to my car. I drove us home, leaving him be. He'd talk when he was ready.

It had been a couple of hours since I'd brought Edward home. He hadn't spoken, he just sat there, staring. I didn't know whether I should try talking to him, or just leave him. I let him be, but gave him some food for dinner.  
He picked at it, and I watched him, worriedly chewing on my lip.

Eventually I took his hand and pulled him to the bedroom. I took off his chef jacket and pants. I pulled him down with me to the bed and wrapped my arms around him. He lay still for a minute or two, and then wrapped his arms around me tightly.  
Everything he'd wanted to say started tumbling out. He told me all that he was feeling, all he'd wanted to say to her. He broke down part way through, but continued anyway.

After an hour he stopped talking, and just cried. After a while of that, Edward stopped crying and his breathing evened out. He'd fallen asleep.  
I was able slip from the bed, and I called Alice. I knew the Cullens would be worried.  
"Bella! Is he OK?" Alice sounded stressed.  
"He's fine Alice. He's sleeping. I think he's going to be alright." I hoped I was right.

* * *

The next morning Edward slept in. I was waiting for him, reading a book.  
"Hey." I looked up, he looked terrible.  
"Morning! How are you feeling?" He tried to smile, but it came out as more of a grimace. He walked slowly over to me, and sat next to me. He seemed unsure of what to do and ended up sitting there looking at his hands. I took his hands and put them around my waist, and wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling him in for a hug.

He responded, squeezing me tightly.  
"Thank you. Thank you so much." He whispered.  
"You're welcome. I love you." I hoped he wouldn't pull away from me. I wanted to support him through this.  
"I love you too Bella." I could feel him smiling.  
I knew we'd be OK.

Edward and I spent the day together. I asked him if he wanted to be alone, but he just shook his head, and pulled me to him, holding me tightly.  
We didn't talk for most of the day, he seemed to want to be alone with his thoughts. Mostly we just lay there, on the bed, holding each other.  
He said he wanted to spend the night alone that night, so I drove him home, kissed him and went back home. I was worried. He hadn't cried the whole day. I wondered if he was just holding it in, waiting until he was alone.

I was enjoying the rare night alone, though I was worried about Edward the whole night. Edward and I had spent so much time together recently; I hadn't had a night to myself in a while.  
I had a glass of wine, made myself some pasta and sat down to a movie I'd wanted to watch for a while. I pressed play and settled back on the couch.

* * *

Later, I was lying in bed, thinking. My phone buzzed; I had it set on vibrate and the noise of the vibration made me jump. I checked my phone, it was a text message from Edward.  
_Can u come over? _I checked the time, it was 2am. I hoped nothing was wrong.  
_I'm coming right now xx_

I jumped out of bed, stumbling around to find some clothes suitable for leaving the house. When I'd found what I was looking for, I raced out to the car and sped off for Edwards.  
As I was driving I felt my phone vibrating in my pant pocket. I pulled it out, quickly glancing down at it.

_Thanks, baby. I love u xx_

I heard car horns beeping as I looked back at the road.


	11. Near miss

**Cullen's Patisserie - Chapter 11**

**Hey everyone, **

**Sorry about the lateness of updating, you know how life gets in the way sometimes!**

**Sorry about the cliffie last chapter haha I toyed with Bella being in a serious accident but I'm pretty sure Eddie boy would have a stroke if I did that! **

**Anyways, enjoy!**

**PS. I don't own any of the characters!**

* * *

I heard beeping and I realised I'd been veering across the line in the centre of the road. I swerved in just enough time to not plough into the car coming the other way. My heart was pounding, and I was breathing as though I'd just run a marathon. It took the rest of the way to Edward's place for everything to go back to normal. I sat in my car outside his place, waiting until my heart beat and breathing were calmer. I didn't want Edward to think that something was wrong. He had enough on his plate without finding out I'd almost totalled my car.

When Edward opened the door, he looked so defeated. I wanted to make him feel better, but I had no idea how to do it. How do you make someone feel better after the death of their child? I closed the distance between us and wrapped my arms around him. I'd do anything I could to try and ease his pain. He wrapped his arms around me and held me tightly for a long time. When we pulled away, there were tears running down his face. I wiped them away and pulled him towards his bedroom. He followed behind without saying anything. I held him for a long time that night, waiting for him to cry himself out, or fall asleep, which ever one happened first. In the end he fell asleep before he stopped crying.

When he was sound asleep I crept out of his room to make a phone call. In all honesty, I had no idea how to deal with someone who'd lost their child. I hoped the person I was calling would have a better idea than I did.  
"Hello?" Esme picked up on the second ring. "Esme, hi. It's Bella. I'm sorry to call so late." I said.  
"Oh it's no problem dear, it's good to hear from you. Have you spoken to Edward?" She sounded concerned. Edward had told me that before Esme met Carlisle, she had lost a baby. I hoped she'd help me out with some thing I could do for Edward.

"I'm at Edward's place now, Esme. I don't know how to help him. What can I do?" I was almost in tears at this point, I felt so useless.  
"Just be there for him dear, that's all he needs. I'm so happy you're in his life. " That made me want to cry even more, she had some much trust in me to do the right thing.  
"Okay, thanks Esme, I'll try." We hung up soon after, and I crept back into the bedroom, and eased myself onto the bed beside Edward. I tried not to wake him, but I must have moved the bed because he opened his eyes and looked up at me. Damn it. Well that rules out becoming a ninja, I suck at sneaking around.

"Hey, sleepy head, how you feeling?" I smiled, brushing his crazy hair out of his eyes. "Better now, I guess. Thanks for being here, love." He smiled, and though it wasn't the smile I loved, it was a start. "Of course, I'll always be here when you need me." I shifted closer to Edward's warm body, and snuggled up to him. He wrapped his arms securely around me and sighed. We were so cozy that it didn't take long for me to drift off to sleep.

* * *

When I woke up the next morning, Edward was no where to be seen, though I could smell something delicious floating through the house. Following my nose, I drifted towards the kitchen, yawning and stretching as I went.  
When I entered the kitchen, Edwards darting around, and there were piles of food over every surface. I stood staring at Edward with my mouth hanging open.

Edward eventually noticed my staring and walked over to me, pecking me on the cheek. "Morning, love. How'd you sleep?" He wrapped his arms around my waist squeezing gently. "Morning. What's all this?" I had no idea how he expected the two of us to eat that mountain of food. "I invited everyone over. We're going to have a big brunch!" He was practically bouncing with excitement. "Go have a shower, love. Everyone will be here soon." I just nodded and made my way towards the shower, frowning. What had brought this on?

When I came out of the shower I quickly dressed, and I could hear voices out in the kitchen. I walked out of the bedroom and saw the entire Cullen family, as well as quite a few other people I didn't know. I walked over to where Edward was standing with Esme and Carlisle. They all smiled at me and we exchanged hugs and kisses on the cheek.

"Wow, there's a lot of people here. Who are they all?" Esme started pointing them all out and explaining how they all came to be here. Most of them seemed to be family friends from way back. I forgot most of the names as soon as they came into my head. There were around 30 other people there, not including the Cullen family.

One name stuck in my mind though. Denali. Tanya's family were there, though Tanya wasn't. They were, of course, all gorgeous. Esme saw me tense up when she mentioned their names.  
"They're nice people, Bella. When Tanya started working for us, we got to know her family. Of course once things started going wrong, we lost contact with them. I think Edward invited them to try and make things right." I smiled and nodded, though the smile didn't reach my eyes. I knew Esme noticed, but she didn't say anything about it. She continued pointing people out.

After Esme finished pointing people out, I excused myself to get something to eat. Alice made her way over to me and was appalled by my outfit. "Isabella Swan! What the hell are you wearing?" She'd dragged me out of the kitchen and into Edward's bedroom. I'd pulled on one of Edward's large t-shirts and a pair of leggings.

"What? It's all I had here!" She just shook her head and started rifling through a draw. She pulled out a dress. "Put this on. I won't have my future sister-in-law looking like that!" She shuddered and pushed me towards the bathroom. I knew I had no choice. She was scary. And quite frankly, really strong, for her size. Damn pixie.

When I emerged Alice clapped and cheered. "Where did you even get these from? Why does Edward have girls clothing?" My mind strayed to Tanya, wondering if they'd been hers. "I keep them here for emergencies. This was most definitely an emergency." I rolled my eyes. An emergency to Alice is completely different to what most people would class as an emergency.

"You know this is way too overdressed for brunch, right Alice?" She'd put me in a knee length dress, which was lower cut than anything I'd ever owned. "Yes but we aren't just doing brunch. We're also going out this afternoon. Shopping, afternoon tea, more shopping, dinner and then bar hopping. It's going to be so much fun!" Alice's eyes were shining with excitement. Oh no. Shopping? Bar hopping? More shopping? This was bad, bad, bad. I hoped I wasn't going to be spending all that time with the pixie. I loved Alice dearly, but she could be quite intense. Especially when it came to shopping. I didn't even like shopping.

I groaned. "Come on Alice, you know I don't like shopping!" She acted as though she hadn't heard me. "Come on, lets head back out there, we've gotta get Rose and Esme and get out there. There's so little time left today!" I checked the time and it was 11 o'clock. So little time?

Damn pixie.


End file.
